


i got a heart full of you (a thousand ways of saying 'i love you')

by junyeonbug



Category: NINE PERCENT (Band), YHNEXT (Band), 乐华七子NEXT | NEX7, 偶像练习生 | Idol Producer (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, biting are just Idiots i hate them, emotionally constipated zhengting, matchmaker justin, nothing but fluff, power bottom zhengting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 15:58:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15440565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/junyeonbug/pseuds/junyeonbug
Summary: Zhengting's too much of an idiot to say 'I love you' to Wenjun, but thankfully, there's another thousand ways of saying it.





	i got a heart full of you (a thousand ways of saying 'i love you')

**Author's Note:**

> title is from nex7's heart full of you!! listen to it [here](https://youtu.be/LVMKQ1ardyU) if you haven't, this song is a good reference to the entire fic!! i got the inspiration after hearing wenjun's line hehe

"Zhengting, you're in love with him."

Justin watched speechlessly as the older plummeted himself headfirst into his pillow at the realisation.

"I... am?" He asked hesitantly, almost inaudibly as his words got muffled by the pillow.

"Yes. Now stop living in denial and confess to him already," Justin responsed nonchalantly.

Zhengting pried himself from his shock absorber in an instant, looking at Justin with an expression that spoke terror and unbelief.

"Confess? Are you crazy?"

Justin rolled his eyes so hard they hit the back of his head.

"Then what do you want to do? Continue having your hands all over him in front of us? In front of the public?" Justin stood up in irritation. "Have you seen twitter? At this point the fans literally would prefer it if the two of you got married."

Zhengting slammed his face on his pillow once again, letting out a groan comparable to a yawning hippopotamus.

"I'm serious," the younger sat back down, a tinge of pity in his voice. "Just tell him. It's only Wenjun. He has a soft spot for you, we all know that. What's the worst that can happen?"

"It's not that," Zhengting's voice was squeaky from his nose being pressed down. "I can't do it."

Justin sighed in hopelessness, resisting the urge to walk up to his bandmate and strangle him to death.

"Your conscience won't allow you to say the three words?" Justin asked flatly.

Zhengting nodded, feeling the tips of his ears burn just by the thought of it.

"This is why everyone calls you a bottom."

Zhengting shot up from his planked position faster than he could imagine and bored holes through Justin's face.

"I'm. Not. A. Bottom," he tried threateningly, but Justin simply stared back at him with mo traces of intimidation.

"What would you do if Wenjun suddenly walked in and asked if you could cook dinner for him although it's 1AM?"

Zhengting looked away from the younger, the image of a sleepy Wenjun, clad in pyjamas and a bedhead complimenting his stunning appearance calling his name sweetly filled his mind.

He flopped back down, opting to cover his flaming cheeks and ears with his pillow, shame washing over him like a destructive wave as he mumbled his next words.

"I am a bottom."

Justin beamed with accomplishment.

"That's more like it," he folded his arms and streched his legs across Zhengting's. "So, how are you gonna tell him that you love him?"

"Minghao... I can't do it..." Zhengting groaned, and Justin was a hundred percent positive that his face was as red as Xinchun's hair.

"It's just three words, Zhengting, what's so hard?"

Zhengting wished he knew.

Love had been an extremely intimate topic to him since young, and he grew up with the habit of expressing his love into actions rather than saying it out loud. So when it came to fans professing their love to him, or him displaying his love back to them, Zhengting was a complete disaster.

He recalled that one time he read a letter a fan had sent to him, consisting of a paragraph full of 'wo ai ni's, with cameras filming his every action. His voice had cracked, he had choked on his saliva and made an absolute fool out of himself on camera, making Zhengting sure that that was the worst moment in his life.

With the current situation at hand, Zhengting might want to rethink that.

"Look, you can practice with me first," Justin inched closer so that he was sitting beside the unmoving mound on the bed. "Go on, pretend I'm Wenjun."

Zhengting's flushed face emerged from the pillow's depths, and his expression immediately soured at the sight of the younger slicking his hair back and acting as if he was the love of his life.

"Stop pretending to be Wenjun, it's not gonna work. You're too ugly," Zhengting groaned and retreated back into shell.

Justin halted his actions, huffing in offence at the insult hurled at him.

"Well sorry I don't have visuals sculpted by the visual gods themselves, nor the height of a flaming basketball hoop," Justin sulked. "I'm just trying to help."

Zhengting let his mind drift off to his suffering that seemed like a daily activity for the rest of his members. Chengcheng and Justin easily say 'I love you' to their Chengstars and Nanas and each other. Quanzhe literally makes his rounds around the dorm to say 'goodnight' and 'I love you' to everyone before going to bed. Zeren would never stop cooing and saying 'I love you' during his daily video calls with his dog.

And then we have Zhengting, whose face starts flushing and words starts getting choppy at the mention of the three words.

"Hey, are you listening?" Justin's slap on his arm startled him out of his thoughts.

"What."

"I was saying how instead of saying 'I love you' to Wenjun, you could do cute little actions to him that convey the same meaning," Justin suggested. "And maybe Wenjun would get the message after a few attempts."

Zhengting slowly pulled himself out of his hiding spot, the smile on his face growing wider and wider by the second.

"For once," he grinned, "you have a good idea."

"They don't call me Doctor Love for nothing," Justin leaned back and smiled to himself.

"The only thing I've heard someone call you is annoying."

Just as Justin was about to prance up and rain punches on Zhengting's back, a faint knock on the door interrupted their actions.

Wenjun's head peeked through the crack, raising his eyebrows at the sight of Justin's fist in the air and Zhengting using his pillow as a shield.

"Can you please make dinner for me, Zhengting? I know it's 1AM and you're probably tired, but... I'm hungry," he whined, even having the audacity to stick out his bottom lip.

Justin and Zhengting exchanged a knowing glance, and Zhengting could read every single word hidden behind Justin's smirk.

"Okay. I'll make dinner for you."

 

 

* * *

 

 

Zhengting saw the pout on Wenjun's face brighten when he agreed, bouncing to the kitchen table to sit himself down as Zhengting emerged from his bedroom.

"What would you like to eat?" Zhengting inquired, forcing himself not to stare at the adorable birds nest on Wenjun's head as he opened the fridge to see the contents.

"Mmm, anything is fine! I know we don't have much food anyway," Wenjun grinned happily.

"Bad news," Zhengting closed the fridge door, "we don't have any food at all."

Wenjun's gaze lingered on him for a second, before his eyes dimmed and the pout found its way back onto his face again.

At the emergency situation, Zhengting's panic siren started wailing. Justin's suggestion kept on replaying itself in his head, haunting him as if he would be punished severely if he didn't improvise and think of something.

Zhengting suddenly remembered his secret stash of cup noodles under his bed, and turned back to Wenjun.

"Do you want to eat _mala_?" Zhengting asked the dejected boy sulking at his seat.

At the sound of the last word, Wenjun's ears perked up in excitement, beaming expectantly at Zhengting.

"Hold on, I'll go get it," Zhengting smiled wearily at him and returned back into his room.

Justin's eyes followed him from the time he entered to the time he pulled out his box of snacks from under his bed, only to find a single cup of instant noodles left.

He blinked in dilemma, gazing forlornly at the lone red cup rolling around in the box, as if bidding goodbye to its owner.

He looked up at Justin, who was still looking at him, an eyebrow raised in question.

"What are you waiting for?"

"What?" Zhengting replied in confusion.

"You're gonna leave him hungry like that?" Justin tested, and Zhengting swallowed the lump of shame in his throat.

"But... it's my last one..."

Justin let out an exasperated sigh, putting his phone down to judge Zhengting properly.

"Wenjun's happiness, or a stupid cup of mala instant noodles that you can get anytime at the supermarket?"

Zhengting's gaze returned to the rolling cup in his box.

"...Fine."

He grabbed the cup, shoved the empty box back and exited the room, feeling Justin's eyes remain on him even as he refused to part gazes with his precious instant noodles.

"Do you mind this brand?" Zhengting placed the cup in front of Wenjun.

"You're... you're giving this to me?" Wenjun's eyes glimmered, "but it's yours!"

"Don't worry, I have more," Zhengting lied, surprised at how easily it came out of his honest mouth.

He turned around to begin boiling the water before Wenjun could see through his lie. Zhengting meticulously poured in the condiments and added the water, placing the cooked noodles and chopsticks in front of the elated boy.

"Thank you, Zhengting," Wenjun picked up the chopsticks and grinned brightly, "I'll repay this to you another day."

Zhengting formed the words _"you don't have to, since I love you and this is the way I'm gonna say it to you"_ in his mind, but an invisible weight prevented the words from leaving his throat.

Feeling his cheeks start to heat up just from the thought, Zhengting hurriedly returned to his room where Justin welcomed him with a disappointed glare.

"You're a terrible person, Zhengting. Even I had to tell you to choose Wenjun over instant noodles."

_Why was Justin always right?_

_**Attempt #1 [FAILED]** _

 

 

* * *

 

 

"Where's Wenjun?"

They were back in the Idol Producer dorms, preparing for their concept evaluations. Even though Zhengting was in a different room from Zeren, Quanzhe and Wenjun, he made it a point to check on everyone before heading to bed at night.

"I don't know," Quanzhe shrugged, his hair still damp from having just showered. "I think he might still be practising. I peeked into his practice room before I left and he was still there."

"Still practising?" Zhengting threw a glance at the clock on the wall, "for heaven's sake, it's 2AM!"

"He mentioned to me something about not being able to perfect the dance," Zeren piped in. "Mentor evaluations are tomorrow, I guess he doesn't want to screw up in front of everyone."

Zhengting sighed in frustration. He wanted to nag about how practising into the night was terrible for health, but he himself was one to do that, so Zhengting simply thanked the two boys and made his way to the practice room building.

He prayed that fans weren't camping out this late at night to take pictures, as he looked remarkably terrible. He wrapped his padded jacket around his body and jogged to the opposite building, hoping no one saw his pig-imprinted pyjama pants and messy brown hair.

Walking past the various practice rooms, he was surprised at the large number of trainees who hadn't clocked out yet. Zhengting had ordered everyone in Dream to go to bed, so their practice room was dark. Dinghao was spotted in Boom Boom Boom's practice room with Yanjun, Chaoze and Zhangjing surrounding him, deep in conversation. A majority of Listen To What I Say team were still synchronising their dance, trying to piece together something presentable for the next day. Ling Chao and Ziyang were huddled together in Firewalking's practice room, probably sleeping.

When Zhengting reached the end of the hallway, he peered through the singular strip of glass to find a lone figure moving his body to the rhythm of the slow music.

He carefully slipped into the room without Wenjun noticing, silently watching the tall boy dance.

Zhengting found himself mesmerised at the way Wenjun managed to use his long limbs as an advantage to make the dance seem more fluid and connected. _He can't seem to perfect the dance?_ Zhengting thought as the song ended without Wenjun slipping up, _bullshit. Setting standards too high for himself again._

"That was amazing," Zhengting spoke a few seconds after the last note was played. Wenjun jumped at the voice behind him but relaxed when he realised it was just Zhengting.

"Jesus, you scared me," Wenjun panted as he joined Zhengting on the floor. "When did you get in here? Why are you still awake?"

"I could ask the same to you," Zhengting fought back, getting distracted by Wenjun's adam's apple bobbing up and down as he chugged a bottle of Nongfu.

"I was just going to go back," Wenjun chuckled nervously, putting down the bottle.

"Nice try," Zhengting flicked his forehead. "You and I both know you can't lie."

Wenjun scowled, hugging his knees as he avoided Zhengting's worried gaze.

"Is something wrong?" Zhengting's concerned voice struck a chord in Wenjun.

"No."

"There you go again, lying as if I would believe you," he placed a reassuring hand on Wenjun's knee. "Tell me what's wrong."

The taller boy remained silent for a long while, the silence between them heavy. Zhengting waited patiently for him to gather his emotions and form a reply.

"I... don't want to go home."

And Zhengting instantly knew what he meant.

"Hey," he said gently, grabbing Wenjun's chin with his thumb and index finger. "Look at me."

Wenjun hesitantly turned his head to meet Zhengting's gaze, falling prey to his beautiful black orbs.

"You're not going to go home. Have some faith in yourself, Wenjun, it's because you're thinking like this, that's why you think you're not doing good enough," Zhengting frowned, his fingers on Wenjun's chin maintaining their place. "You're doing perfectly fine now, you hear me? You're not going to go home Wenjun, listen to me."

Wenjun bit his bottom lip, tears flooding his eyes. Zhengting realised the proximity they were in, how wrong the fingers on Wenjun's chin looked and turned away in embarrassment, his pupils darting nervously around the room.

Their silence resumed, Zhengting too afraid to say anything else. When he finally regained the courage to glance back at the other boy, his heart broke at the sight of him staring at the floor in despair.

"What can I do to make you feel better?" His question made Wenjun raise his head and look back at Zhengting.

Zhengting was almost sure that Wenjun's gaze fluttered to his lips for a milisecond, before he gulped and looked away again, much to Zhengting's disappointment.

"Hug me?"

Zhengting giggled inaudibly but inched closer to engulf Wenjun in his arms. Wenjun's tall frame immediately shrunk and melted into Zhengting's warm embrace as they remained in that position for what seemed like an eternity.

Zhengting finally pulled away from Wenjun after he was sure that the younger had calmed down, his hands still hanging loosely off his shoulders. Zhengting saw it again- Wenjun's eyes flitting down to his lips- but not for long.

"You wanna head back now?" Zhengting broke the awkward silence. Wenjun appeared mildly disappointed but still nodded, stood up and pulled Zhengting to his feet.

"Thank you, Zhengting," Wenjun mumbled, gripping Zhengting's sweater paw with his little fist, not letting go even as they made their way out of the building.

The feeling of words trapped in his throat came back to him again, filling Zhengting with discomfort and regret as their walk back to the dorms remained loud with silence.

_**Attempt #2 [FAILED]** _

 

 

* * *

 

 

The day finally came. The day that would decide Zhengting's future for the next one and a half years, the day that his lifelong dreams would come true.

After joking around with Chengcheng and Justin to loosen their nerves, Zhengting found him standing at a corner all by himself, staring at the floor as his chest heaved prominently.

He wasted no time in manouvering his way through the throngs of trainees, positioning himself in front of Wenjun and taking his hands into his own.

Wenjun raised his head at the new presence in front of him, before resuming his staring contest with the floor.

"You'll make it, okay? All four of us will," Zhengting tried to deliver some positive energy but Wenjun wasn't buying it.

"Don't get my hopes up, Zhengting, you know all four of us can't get in. I know I'm the one who won't make it."

Zhengting opened his mouth to scold him, but the shouts of the stage ushers telling them to standby forced him to part ways with Wenjun. He tried making Wenjun look at him, attempting to give him some hope, but Wenjun just wriggled away from Zhengting's grasp.

Announcing the 9th place of the final lineup was undeniably the most torturous ten minutes in his life that Zhengting had to endure.

Watching Wenjun hold Zhangjing's hand with a pained but defeated smile on his face from his 7th place seat was similar to having needles prick his heart one by one. It looked as if Wenjun had resigned to his fate, 10th place, when he turned to look at Zhangjing and mouthed a small 'congratulations', in which Zhangjing responsed with a violent shake of his head.

_"9th place, Banana Entertainment, You Zhangjing."_

Zhengting felt like his heart was being squeezed as he forced himself to clap and be happy for the Malaysian boy, trying to ignore Wenjun's broken smile.

The rest of the events passed by in a blur, and the next thing he remembered was tearing down the pyramid, into the eliminated trainees area and crashing into Wenjun for a giant hug.

The boy immediately broke down upon making contact with Zhengting, his tears making dark stains on his shoulder. Zhengting held his head against his shoulder, letting the other boys stroke his hair and pat his back.

"I'm sorry..." Wenjun began, his breath hitching continuously from his breakdown.

"Why are you apologising? It's not your fault," Zhengting handed him a tissue as he dried his red eyes with it.

"I... I let you down, Zhengting."

"Please, you didn't. I'm proud of you, Wenjun, if you didn't know," Zhengting chuckled, gently swiping his thumb under Wenjun's left eye to wipe away the remains of his tears.

Wenjun remained silent, his hands still cupping Zhengting's waist, his eyes never leaving the floor.

"Thank you, Zhengting," Wenjun abruptly said, making Zhengting's head tilt in confusion.

"Now why are you thanking me? You're weird," he touched Wenjun's nose and giggled. The taller turned away, and Zhengting noticed that the tips of his ears were bright red.

"You'll be fine, okay? Just listen to me, Wenjun, we can do this. We'll still be seeing each other a lot, so you won't miss me at all," Zhengting intertwined Wenjun's fingers with his own.

"Just know that I... I-"

The sacred words were on the tip of his tongue, just centimetres away from Wenjun, but yet it felt impossibly far.

"Zhengting! Wenjun! We're taking a picture! Come quick!" Quanzhe hopped in between them, before running to where all the other trainees were gathered.

"I... appreciate you a lot."

And with that, Zhengting dragged Wenjun to where Quanzhe was, posing just in time for the picture to be snapped.

With the way Wenjun's gaze on Zhengting remained after the picture was taken, for a moment, Zhengting thought he might've finally gotten his message across, but Wenjun simply untangled their fingers and walked away from him.

_**Attempt #3 [FAILED]** _

 

 

* * *

 

 

Zhengting lifted the heavy suitcases out of the car boot and wondered when did he become Justin and Chengcheng's personal maid.

To top it off, the two kids simply ignored their suitcases that Zhengting had placed in front of them and bolted straight into their apartment, leaving Zhengting standing there in exasperation.

Their manager drove off. Zhengting was officially abandoned with his kids' belongings in the middle of the night. Being a single mother was tough.

As he finally managed to balance the haversacks on his back and roll three bags at once, a familiar tall figure abruptly emerged from their apartment.

"Let me take those," he ignored Zhengting's protests and in a split second, all the baggage had been transferred onto Wenjun's twig body.

"You don't have to take everything, I know it's heav-"

"Let's just go, Zhengting. I know you're tired," Wenjun's voice had a hint of irritation, but when Zhengting's eyes drifted up to meet his own, he broke out into a huge grin.

"Welcome home. I missed you."

Before Zhengting had any time to return the sweet words, Wenjun was already advancing towards the front door, easily lugging the huge weights with him.

They entered their dorm, which was in a huge commotion. Justin was going around slapping everyone's butts and laughing cheekily at their reaction, Quanzhe waddled around giving Chengcheng and Justin a huge hug each, Zeren performed his customized handshakes with the two, ending with another hug.

Zhengting's heart blossomed at the scene. It might've been a chaos, but he knew he was finally home with his precious brothers.

"Okay everyone! Listen up!" Justin climbed on top of one of the dining chairs, his right hand positioned as a mic, "you know what time it is! It's kids night out! Anyone born before the year of 1998 is not invited!"

Wenjun was too concentrated in arranging the suitcases and haversacks in their bedrooms to hear what Justin was saying.

Xinchun, Quanzhe, Chengcheng and Zeren instantly cheered, scrambling around to get their valuables and to put on their shoes.

Zhengting watched them in confusion for a moment, before it dawned on him and he realised in horror what Justin was planning.

"What the hell?" He yanked Justin off the chair, his pupils cautiously flickering to the bedrooms, where Wenjun still was.

"I'm doing you a favour," he smiled triumphantly, "both of you need time alone. Trust me, Zhengting, you'll thank me later."

With that, he slapped Zhengting hard on the back, and skipped his way out of the house.

Zhengting gaped unbelievably at the five of them running down the streets like idiots, and questioned how did he get conned so easily.

"Hm? Where did they all go?" Wenjun sauntered out of the bedrooms, looking around at the once-catastrophic house that had just been emptied.

"They... went out... for a kids night..." Zhengting still couldn't gather himself together after Justin had caught him too off-guard. "I didn't even give them money... I didn't even give them a curfew... What if they get kidnapped..."

Wenjun's sweet chuckles from beside him snapped him out of his daze. Zhengting turned to look at him as Wenjun placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Don't worry, they'll be fine," he grinned reassuringly. "Now let's have some fun ourselves."

At Wenjun's terrible choice of words, and the fact that they were now alone at home, Zhengting's face flushed a deep red, tears of embarrassment accumulating in his eyes.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, so innocently that Zhengting wanted nothing but to slap him. "Come in, we can do whatever you want. It's been a long time since you were back, anyways."

"Wenjun," Zhengting said in a tone of disbelief, "we were literally gone for only like, two weeks."

Wenjun spun around to face Zhengting, a tiny pout etched on his lips.

"That's two weeks too many."

Zhengting buried his face in his hands, willing his cheeks and ears to cool down and his heart to stop beating at an insane rate.

"Y-yeah, I suppose," Zhengting cleared his throat awkwardly, sitting as far as possible from Wenjun on the sofa.

"Want to watch a movie?" Wenjun sprung to the box of tapes they kept under the TV set. "Quanzhe and Xinchun went out on a haul not long ago, you can choose whatever you want."

Wenjun placed the heavy box on Zhengting's lap, before standing up, making Zhengting's neck nearly crack at the sheer distance between them.

"I'll go make some food. I mean, I'll try," Wenjun sheepishly rubbed his nape. "Choose a movie, I'll be back soon."

Watching Wenjun's figure fade into the kitchen, Zhengting filed through the numerous movies that he'd never seen before. Ignoring the fact that almost half of them were Despicable Me movies, he found what he was looking for and pulled the DVD out with a smile.

 _'The Secret Life of Pets'_. Wenjun had never mentioned to him that he was extremely fond of this animated film, but the uncountable number of times Zhengting caught him watching it secretly by himself spoke for itself.

Wenjun carefully shuffled out of the kitchen with a huge bowl of popcorn balanced on his arms, a can of soda in each hand, and a packet of gummy bears hanging from his mouth.

When he saw the film that Zhengting was inserting into the DVD player, his eyes widened and the gummy bears fell to the floor with a sharp _'thwack'_.

"Are we really watching this?" Wenjun placed the food in the coffee table before joining Zhengting on the couch, his attempt at hiding his excitement failing very badly.

Zhengting simply grinned in response as he clicked the play button, the words _"I chose this because I know you like it"_ caught somewhere between his throat and tongue.

They watched the movie in silence for a few minutes, before Zhengting glanced over at Wenjun to see his eyes practically sparkling with bright glimmers of the colourful scenes flickering by one by one.

"Who's your favourite character?"

Zhengting felt like he already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear Wenjun explain everything intricately to him.

"Chloe! The tabby cat!" He replied with no hesitation, pointing to the screen as she briefly made an appearance. "I relate a lot to her personality, and well, she's a cat, so how could I not like her?"

Zhengting chuckled; his predictions were proved correct. He was about to reach for another handful of gummy bears, when Wenjun's voice halted his actions.

"I think you'd like Snowball, the bunny," he grinned with a mouthful of popcorn, "she's just like you. She's the leader, she's smart, and she's cute. Just like you."

Zhengting's hand froze in midair. He whipped his head around to look back at Wenjun, but the boy had already resumed his focus on the movie, his cheeks protruding with popcorn, paying no attention to Zhengting's face that was growing redder by the second.

_Wenjun had just called him cute._

Abandoning the gummy bears, Zhengting sunk back into his position on the couch, draping the blanket over his burning cheeks.

"O-of course," Zhengting mumbled, "she is my favourite."

For the rest of the movie, Zhengting kept the majority of his face covered with the blanket, only making his eyes visible. About one hour in, he felt his eyelids getting heavy due to the warmth and the food coma, making him nod off every now and then.

He felt his head get pushed onto a warm surface, making him wonder, since when did they invest in a heated pillow?

"Goodnight, Zhengting, sleep well" a voice above him whispered. "Thank you for everything."

Zhengting wasn't sure if the 'I love you' that was caught in his throat managed to find its way out as he submitted himself to the comfortable drowsiness.

_**Attempt #4 [FAILED]** _

 

 

* * *

 

 

Zhengting wanted to die.

He contemplated walking right up to their stylists and handing them a stack of bills each. The way they dressed Wenjun today was purely a sin.

Heck, the boy was only wearing a simple denim jacket over an orange Sketchers shirt. And yet he looked like he just popped out of a fashion magazine.

Zhengting looked back at himself. He was wearing the same style as him- denim with denim- but compared to Wenjun, he was- no, he couldn't even be compared with Wenjun. Wenjun occupied a whole other category of beautiful by himself.

"Zhengting~" Wenjun pranced over to Zhengting's side, "do I look good?"

_"Good? You look absolutely amazing, stunning, ravishing, entrancing, mesmerising, eye-catching, jaw-dropping, one of a kind, never seen befor-"_

"Yeah," Zhengting swallowed the bundle of unsaid words in his throat, feeling himself heat up at the fact that he managed to think of all those adjectives to describe Wenjun in a split second.

Wenjun's little eyes curved up at the response, reaching up to fix Zhengting's hair.

"Thank you, Zhengting. You look great too."

Zhengting couldn't control his jaw dropping open at Wenjun's abrupt compliment. He prayed that the stylists went heavy on the blush today- that would be able to conceal his extremely pink cheeks.

Wenjun stifled a giggle at Zhengting's reaction, and before he could say anything, the staff were shouting at them to standby.

They were going to be performing 'Heart Full of You' in those clothes. Shit, Zhengting thought, how would he concentrate on his performance when Wenjun was basically radiating ethereal energy a mere few feet away from him?

True enough, what Zhengting had expected did happen, hitting him about ten times harder than it should have.

Zhengting found it impossible to tear his gaze away from Wenjun when he sang his line.

_"And true love, sweetheart, the important part~"_

And if that wasn't destructive enough, as soon as he was done with his line, Wenjun raised his flower-clad microphone in Zhengting's direction and threw him a cocky smirk.

Zhengting was temporarily stunned, effectively missing his own line which was right after Wenjun's, even to the extent of nearly tripping over his own feet and falling face flat on the floor.

He barely composed himself to complete the rest of the song, rushing to get a water bottle to chug half of it down and pour the other half over his steaming face when it was finally over.

He closed his eyes to pant the exhaustion away, but when he opened them again, all he could see was Wenjun's glistening face beaming fondly at him.

Zhengting reached for another water bottle.

It was the games segment now; they were instructed to play musical chairs, and whoever got eliminated every round would receive a punishment. The punishment would be getting their face ruined by makeup drawn by the other members, and Zhengting was definitely not looking forward to that.

They began their first round, YH Boys's 'I Can Do It' playing as they skipped around the circle of 6 chairs.

The music stopped suddenly, and fortunately for Zhengting, his butt managed to hit a chair just as the last beat played.

Not so fortunately for Zhengting, in his hassle to find a vacant seat, he had forcefully shoved Wenjun, who was competing with him for the same chair, straight to the floor, landing on his butt painfully.

The face that Wenjun had given him displayed pure shock, fear, hurt and betrayal, making Zhengting regret his decision.

In a split second, he grabbed hold of Wenjun's hand, lifted him up and yanked him onto his chair, quickly swapping places with him.

He heard the fans' cheering increase in volume at his action, earning the attention of the other members and the MC.

"What is this?" The MC raised his eyebrows in confusion. "Zhengting, did you just give Wenjun your seat?"

The members all 'ooh'ed in response, in addition to the fans screaming their lungs out. Zhengting stood there awkwardly, his face about to fall off from embarrassment, trying to block out the teasing cheers.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Wenjun laughing so happily- he was stomping his feet on the groud as he clapped his hands- and felt his heart soften at the sight.

"Zhengting, why did you give up your seat?" The MC passed a mic to him.

"He looked so pitiful sitting on the floor, I couldn't resist," Zhengting admitted, feeling his face grow hotter and hotter with each passing second, hearing the members continue with their whistling.

"Looks like you'll be the one getting your face ruined, Zhengting!" The MC brought out a table of makeup products, and within a split second, Chengcheng and Justin's hands were all over his face.

Wenjun simply stood at the side and admired his members beautifying Zhengting's face, his excited grin and contagious laugh never stopping even for a second.

When the two of them stepped away from their creation, handing Zhengting a mirror in the process, it was then did he realise the consequences.

The fans went crazy at his ruined face, and Zhengting could faintly hear the continuous sound of camera shutters behind the enthusiastic screaming.

Just as Zhengting was about to pick up a chair and throw it in Justin and Chengcheng's direction, Wenjun slinked up to his ear and cupped a hand over it as he whispered his words.

"Thank you for taking my punishment, Zhengting. You look great."

And it didn't matter if his makeup-ruined face spread like wildfire over the internet- with Wenjun's angellic smile taking up his vision, the three sacred words clinging onto the back of Zhengting's throat for their life, Zhengting thought that this suffering would all be worth it.

**_Attempt #5 [FAILED]_ **

 

 

* * *

 

 

Zhengting rolled around on his bed, burying himself further into the covers as he tried to keep himself warm.

He unfolded the wet towel placed on his forehead and draped it over his entire face. Still not cooling enough.

He knew this was going to happen- with the excessive workload of being active in two groups, exhaustion was just waiting for him. Chengcheng had already fallen victim to this a couple weeks back, making him unable to attend their Bangkok fanmeet, and now it looked like it was Zhengting's turn.

He gulped down a glass of water on his bedside table, trying to soothe his inflamed throat. Barely anything was working.

"Zhengting. You have a visitor."

Zhengting turned around to see Xiao Gui's head fitted through the crack of his slightly ajar door.

"Visitor?" He croaked out, just realising how dead he sounded. It was close to midnight, who would visit him in the Nine Percent dorm now?

"Yes, a visitor," Xiao Gui grinned slyly, before his head retracted back.

"Wenjun! His room is here."

Zhengting froze.

He had barely any time to react before Xiao Gui's head reemerged, winking at him and muttering a "have fun" before disappearing.

Zhengting concluded that this was all Justin's fault.

"Hey," Wenjun slipped into his room a few seconds later, placing the bags of mysterious items on the floor. He was still in his stage clothes from his recent schedule, making Zhengting wonder if he rushed over to their dorm right after it ended, leaving no time for him to rest.

Wenjun glanced worriedly at him before joining him on his bed.

"Hey," Zhengting replied, too exhausted to say anything else.

"Shit, you sound terrible," Wenjun sighed, combing his hand through Zhengting's messy bedhead. "Why didn't you tell me you fell sick? _Justin_ had to tell me. I feel inferior to that boy now."

"I didn't want you to worry," Zhengting closed his eyes, leaning onto Wenjun's shoulder.

"You silly, I thought we could tell each other everything," Wenjun held Zhengting's head on his shoulder in place.

Zhengting hummed, the guilt of keeping the secret that he loved Wenjun slowly eating him up.

"I brought some stuff for you," Wenjun placed Zhengting's head back on his pillow and hopped off his bed to rummage through the bags.

"I made chicken soup for you!" Wenjun held up a thermos flask, grinning proudly. "Actually, Xinchun and I made it. But all he did was make sure that it tasted good, while I did the rest of the work. I think he just wanted to steal some."

Zhengting looked at him incredulously, already feeling his eyes water at his kind act.

"Zeren helped me pick out some of your favourite soft toys," Wenjun dumped a bag full of little plushies on his bed. "Well, I said some, but it looks like he stuffed everything in anyway. The more the better, I guess."

Zhengting reached over to grab a little pig plushie, cuddling it as he watched Wenjun continue to rummage.

"Quanzhe and I made get well cards!" He carefully placed the two cards on Zhengting's lap, "see all these little pigs here? I drew them! And I drew myself beside you too. Isn't it pretty?"

Zhengting picked up one of them, but he was unable to see the said drawings with touched tears now filling his vision.

"Justin and Chengcheng said that they'd give you their get well presents later," Wenjun threw the empty bags in one corner, picked up a plushie for himself and sat back on Zhengting's bed.

They spent the next few seconds in silence, and Zhengting was about to reach out and hug him when Wenjun spoke again.

"I... didn't get you anything that I made by myself, I'm sorry..." He fiddled with the hand of the minion plushie he was holding. "I really wanted to, but I couldn't think of anything else that would make you feel better."

"Justin told me that what I was doing was enough, preparing everything for you and coming over to deliver these although it's already so late, but I feel that it's not enough, because you're still sick and I feel bad that you're sick and I'm not and I can't make you better although I'm perfectly capable of doing so and-"

"I love you."

_Oh shit._

Wenjun's monologue halted and his eyes fluttered up to meet Zhengting's.

"Huh?"

Zhengting was taken aback by his own words for a second, but quickly regained composure.

"I... I love you."

It seemed to come out so easily now, without any sense of hesitation or difficultly, probably from all those months of trying so hard to hold the words in.

Wenjun blinked at him in confusion, as if Zhengting was speaking to him in another language.

"Oh my God, I said I love you, please don't make me repeat myself again," Zhengting buried his face in his plushie, his current fever making his internal temperature heat up even more.

"What if I wanted to make you repeat yourself again?"

Zhengting peeked up, surprisingly finding Wenjun's cheeks dusted with pink, accompanied by a shy grin.

"What?"

"Say that you love me again," he teased, making Zhengting curl up into a ball of embarrassment again.

"No! You know how I am with those words," he whined, internally cursing Justin at how right he was when he called Zhengting a bottom.

"Please? One more time."

Zhengting scowled, mumbling the words as soft as he could into the pig plushie's body.

"I-I love you."

"And I love you too, Zhengting," Wenjun continued his statement, scooting over to sit beside the blushing mess of a boy.

"Y-You... love me too?" Zhengting slowly raised his head from its hidden position, revealing his red-hot cheeks. "You idiot! Why didn't you tell me earlier!"

"I did," he simply smiled in response, "and I'm quite sure you tried to do the same too."

Zhengting sighed defeatedly. The thought that Justin gave Wenjun the same talk he gave him completely didn't cross his mind at all.

"Don't be embarrassed, I already know you love me, so you don't have to say it again," Wenjun replaced the plushie in his arms with Zhengting, holding the boy tight against his chest.

"After all, there are a thousand ways of saying 'I love you', aren't there?"

Zhengting looked up at Wenjun the same time he decided to lean down and press a kiss on him, the kiss effectively landing on the tip of his nose.

When he pulled away to grin widely at Zhengting, it then became clear to him.

"I love you too, Wenjun."

_**Attempt #6 [SUCCESS]** _

**Author's Note:**

> biting remains superior anyone who disagrees can fight me on my twt @biwenjunhui


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